G'day

I'm up for a 90k service for a KJ Verada GTV 2002. I have been quoted $780 because they want to do the timing chain.:eek2:

Has anyone has any experience with not bothering to do this, or waiting? I am reluctant to spend this as I may only have the car for a couple more years before trading. Surely I would get another ten to twenty thousand k's out of it.

The car is in perfect condition, I drive like an old man.

They said I could get it serviced without the timing chain and they would enter it into the log book as a supplementary service.

your thoughts?

cheers

ok firstly there is no timing chain on the 3rd gen magna/verada. Our cars run a timing belt, and if not replaced you run the risk of it snapping and turning your engine into a expensive paperweight.

$780 sounds a bit expensive, are they changing the water pump and belt tensioner too?

G'day Nemesis

I rang them back, 90k is for a general service (fluid top up etc) plus transmission service plus timing belt (i stand corrected!). He reckons they dont do water pump and belt tensioner until 180k. I had the transmission done at the last service because i read they were susceptible to problems so they will knock around $100 off making it $680.

by the way this is Agostino, I used to go to yorke mitsubishi which have closed so if you want to go to Mitusbishi for a service now there isn't much choice - Agostino own three of the four in the metro area.

you might as well do the waterpump while your at it, as this will save you labour costs, id just leave it till 100,000kms
if your belt is still in good nick, not cracking stretching ect. and do the whole lot.

^^^ditto... do what you can in the area while everything is off.
maybe some seals too:
- cam seals x2
- spark plug seals x6
- rocker cover x2

thanks. this is getting expensive....

Timing belt is supposed to be 5 years or ~100,000kms, whichever comes first. So if you want to look at age, you're already overdue. Waiting a little longer probably won't harm you, but you're definitely not going to be able to get away with it for years.

Not changing it because you might be selling in a couple of years is false economy to me anyway. I'd be very off-put purchasing any car that hadn't had the timing belt done by the indicated service. If I really wanted the car, I'd be using the cost of the service as a neogotiating point on price.

Good point Valdez, its at least a year overdue timewise. I'll just have to stop being a tight **** and get it done. Its money I could have spent on beer and horses...

User manual says 3years regardless of KM's or ~100,000km's i dare say the rubber would have turned sorta plastic with cracks in it like the accessory belts in that time

When I got the belt done in the TF, they kept looking at me stupid because I was telling them to do the water pump, the spark plugs and the seals, as above. They were all 'but there is nothing wrong with ....' the easy response is 'yes but it has just cost me $180 in labour to get there, why stint on the $60 odd for a new water pump while you in there'.

Some people just don't like you throwing money at them :)

When I got the belt done in the TF, they kept looking at me stupid because I was telling them to do the water pump, the spark plugs and the seals, as above. They were all 'but there is nothing wrong with ....' the easy response is 'yes but it has just cost me $180 in labour to get there, why stint on the $60 odd for a new water pump while you in there'.

Some people just don't like you throwing money at them :)

where did you go and what did it end up costing?

My car's timing belt is about 50,000km over (150,000). I should really get mine replaced pronto... This means that there is either a somewhat larger then expected margin of safety on these belts, or i'm just one lucky, lazy sob.

On a more technical note, belt failure can be due to either tensile failure or tooth shear fatigue/tooth root cracking. The former is from overtightened belts/belt contamination/other external factors so its really the latter that is the primary cause of failure in aged belts. The problem is that tooth shear normally occurs as a a catastrophic failure that occurs very soon after the initial creep-rupture forms. This effectively means that although there are some signs of belt ageing, in practice belt degradation can not be measured with sufficient accuracy to monitor belt life and predict failure...

Just my 2c

where did you go and what did it end up costing? from memory it was Eric Austin, in behind Autobahn etc on North East Rd, Holden Hill. Cost was about $700, about 2 years ago. Don't use him anymore, kept messing up eg the time he did the timing belt, ordered a TS belt by mistake, extra day without the car, another time dropped the TF in on the way to work, new centre muffler, you guessed it ordered in a TS one, another day without the car. Final straw came when I was replaced drive shafts, he quoted me $420 supplied and fitted the pair, Multidrive at Gepps Cross quoted me $190 and they rang to tell me job done within 4 hours of dropping off the car. They do both my cars now, the Commodore and the TH. Good work, good price and 10 minute walk to work :)

hmmmm i always used Yorke, they charged hard but were always friendly and helpful and I felt that they did a thorough job plus i like the idea of :mits: doing the job even if i'm paying extra for it, hence ringing agostino.

at the end of the day, you need to feel comfortable that the people working on your car are not only not trying to rip you off but also know exactly what they are doing. Prior to the TF (which I bought in 2007 against the advice of a mechanic, still running strong today with no major work done to it since August 08 when I sold it) I hadn't owned a car, so didn't have a mechanic. I asked friends and family and had Eric Austin recommended to me. I used him twice, both times they messed up such a simple thing like ordering the right part. That was enough for me to consider looking elsewhere, the final straw was the cost difference in the drive shaft job.